Location-based services are services provided based on the location of objects. The most prevalent location-based service is Enhanced 911 (or E911) services. The Enhanced 911 service provides 911 operators and emergency responders with information such as the identification of the person calling and the location of the caller. All mobile telephones sold in the United States today have this feature.
Location-based services include, for example and without limitation, satellite navigation devices that let a user know the location of the closest hospital or gas station to a user. Location-based services may also alert enterprises, such as gas stations, as to when a potential customer is within a certain distance. The enterprise may then send targeted advertisements to a traveler, such as discounts, etc.
Still other location-based services are targeted to the tracking of objects, such as, for example and without limitation, tracking of packages, tracking a fleet of vehicles, or determining the number of people who are in a given area for allotting government services where they may be most needed.
The problem is how to protect users' privacy as they use location-based services.
Protecting user privacy is done by a user creating a series of rules for access to the user's information. These rules set privacy settings based on, for example and without limitation, the recipient of the user's information, where the user may be located, the time, etc.
In the prior art, the privacy settings are maintained in a location-based privacy system such as the one in FIG. 3. In FIG. 2, object 201-1 (here a person) travels along path 202-1 through space 101-4, space 101-5, and space 101-3. As user 201-1 travels along this path, user 201-1 sends out “location objects” which indicate where the user is located. In accordance with the illustrative embodiment of the present invention, user 201-1 does this by the use of location generator 301, and user 201-1 has defined different location-based service privacy settings for each space.
Because of the different privacy settings, location-based privacy system 300 checks the rules for each location object to determine whether or not a given location recipient should receive each location object. Location server 302 checks with rule maker 304 to determine whether or not it should send the location object to location recipient 303.